Despite EU regulators last month thwarting the expansion of the
world’s largest seed corporation, it appears Germany won’t escape
new GMO crops.

A spokesman for EU health and consumer policy commissioner, Toni
Borg, told RT that “the approval of SmartStax maize is
expected in September or October.”

The commissioner’s office also told Germany’s Zeit Online that
the approval for the maize seeds would come after a “rigorous,
scientific evaluation process.”

SmartStax GM maize was developed in the US by Monsanto and Dow
AgroSciences. It combines the genes of two already genetically
modified maize varieties. SmartStax is resistant to two types of
herbicides and poisons against six different species of insects,
such as the European corn borer. The seed includes eight
artificially added genes – previously, the biggest number of such
genes added to a single plant was three.

Monsanto and Dow AgroSciences have been lobbying for SmartStax in
Europe for the last five years, having first applied for EU
marketing approval in 2008.

In 2010, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) concluded that
SmartStax was “as safe as conventionally bred maize and
commercial versions in regard [to the] potential impact on the
health of humans, animals and on the environment.”

A study completed the next year also came to the same conclusion
- that SmartStax was safe.

But GM-critical German consulting company Testbiotech has
repeatedly criticized EFSA for serious gaps in its safety
assessment of SmartStax maize. The original GM varieties of maize
that SmartStax was engineered from were tested in a 90-day trial
of GM plants being fed to humans. Reportedly, SmartStax has never
been scientifically tested on animals in Europe and therefore
“the risk assessment performed by the EFSA is actually not
adequate to sufficiently exclude adverse effects on humans,
animals and the environment,” Testbiotech says on its
website.

Independent European experts say that the cultivation of
SmartStax is extremely controversial, because long-term tests of
the new maize have not been conducted.

“This case shows that decisions made by the Commission on
permitting genetically engineered plants in food and feed are not
sufficiently based on science but on economic pressure. Just
because US companies want unrestricted import of these types of
maize into Europe, the EU Commission is continuing the
authorization process and refusing to acknowledge the actual
risks,” said Christoph Then, a representative of Testbiotech.

“This is a serious threat to consumers and the protection of
health and the environment,” said Then, who also is
Greenpeace Germany’s expert on agriculture genetic engineering.
“No other already approved plant contains so many genetically
modified ingredients. It is completely unclear how they interact
and what consequences this has long-term.”

In June, Testbiotech wrote to the European Commission, about for
their risk assessment of SmartStax maize.

In the commission’s reply, officials insisted that SmartStax
maize had been thoroughly tested and had received a “favorable
opinion” from the EFSA as safe to be sold on the European
market.

Testbiotech blasted the EU Commissioner’s reply as “misleading,”
and voiced concerns that the risk assessment of SmartStax showed
that there was “no thorough examination in this case” as
the EFSA did not initiate an independent study for the market
authorization of the corn.

When RT followed up on the exchange, the commission insisted that
it plays no role in addressing the concerns of GM skeptics and
that it is only there to make sure products are safe.

“Any GM product that has been approved for the EU market is
safe because the EU has the most stringent safety rules in the
world,” Borg’s spokesman, Frederic Vincent, told RT on
Tuesday.

Monsanto refused to comment on the upcoming authorization to Zeit
Online, but stated that its products had been “assessed by
various international authorities as safe” and the safety of
Monsanto's products would be "occupied by a huge amount of
data and a variety of studies."

The biotech giant said that the European approval of its seeds
would be "in the interests of general world trade, and also
for imports into the EU."

While Monsanto look likely to win this round, the corporation has
dropped its bid to get more genetically modified crops onto the
European market, due to “widespread popular opposition.”

If the SmartStax gets the green light, it will be in line with
France’s decision to re-open the door to Monsanto products. In
early August, one of the country’s top administrative courts
reversed a ban on genetically modified MON810 corn, which had
been in place since March 2012. The court explained that the EU
moratorium on the GMO corn lacked a legal basis.